Steve McIntosh Report Blog Archive

Thoughts about Andy Rooney

by Steve McIntosh,posted Nov 16 2011 3:49AM

The late Andy Rooney delivered his weekly segment on “Sixty Minutes” from 1978 to 2011. They were always well-written and performed … usually on topics other than mainstream media fodder … interesting, amusing … all the things we broadcasters aspire to, in our offerings to the public. I enjoyed every “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney” I saw.

Like Mr. Rooney, I’ve had the editorial freedom to pursue any course I choose in these daily radio commentaries of mine. Over some 40 years of McIntosh Reports, I can’t recall a single time that management got involved … other than to ask for copies of scripts when listeners questioned some opinion of mine.

A blessing from doing daily commentary is that I once actually compared notes … talked “shop” with Paul Harvey. He was the gold standard. We agreed that we loved the freedom and responsibility to say what we pleased … and shared the fear that we might run out of something worthwhile to say. Harvey and Rooney never did.

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Our thought for today is from Aristotle:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”